As always, Cookstr recipes are tested, trusted, and handpicked by Cookstr’s editors from published cookbooks to help you on your culinary journey. To get you started, here are a selection of recipes on Cookstr by the chefs and cookbooks authors that made them famous.

January is National Soup Month, and it couldn’t come at a more opportune time. Whether you’re in a part of the country where it’s been freezing for weeks, a place where it stays temperate year-round, or you’re just starting to feel the chill, there’s nothing like a hot bowl (or cup, or mug, or tureen) of soup filled with goodies like fresh vegetables, herbs and spices, whole grains and slow-cooked proteins to warm you all the way to the core. Gussy up a pot of classic chicken noodle or minestrone with some unusual ingredients, or go global with cross-continental flavors and traditions. The Real Mushroom Soup by Jamie Oliver can be made with a variety of mixed wild mushrooms, and garnished with crostini or truffle oil for company – or just when you want to treat yourself after a hard day of snow-shoveling, icicle-dodging and resolution-making.

Check out the Cookstr.com homepage for our new slideshow: recipes for main-course meals in 30 minutes or less! Each of these simple, speedy and inexpensive dishes is comforting and tasty for the cold winter months when weekday meals should be on the table almost as quickly as you take off your boots and switch to fuzzy slippers. Giuliano Hazan writes in the headnotes to this Broccoli Soup with Pasta recipe, “Broccoli’s rich and nutty flavor makes a great broth for this soup and the pasta absorbs some of that flavor, making the soup more substantial. It is also very quick and easy to prepare.”

On January 5, America celebrates National Whipped Cream Day, birthday of Reddi-Wip founder Aaron “Bunny” Lapin. But it’s easy and rewarding to make your own whipped cream fresh from just a few ingredients, either whisking by hand or with an electric mixer. Matt Lewis’ Simple Whipped Cream recipe is a good arm workout, while Tish Boyle instructs on how to make sweetened Classic Whipped Cream with an electric kitchen mixer. However you whip it, you’ll be proud to know a little extra elbow grease went into a dessert like Victoria Blashford-Snell and Brigitte Hafner’s Banana Cream Pie, a classic American dessert thick with fresh, ripe bananas. Just be sure not to overbeat the whipped cream topping, or you’ll be well on your way to fresh DIY butter!